Abstract

Popular fears about human infectious disease often focus on pathogens spread by person-to-person contact. By contrast, we show that 70–80% of human pathogens are environmentally transmitted (ie, people are infected through contact with free-living stages or environmental reservoirs including soil, water, vectors, food, or non- human hosts in the environment). In fact, environmentally transmitted diseases represent about 40% of today's global burden of human infectious disease (or 150 million disability adjusted life-years). Here, we call for renewed attention to the connection between human health and environmental factors, with a focus on identifying ecological solutions to interrupt transmission.